


Periwinkle Professions

by LilLayneeLoo



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Justice League (2017), Superman - All Media Types
Genre: First Kiss, I did, Love Confessions, M/M, Periwinkle Kryptonite, google it, i don't know what this is, it's sort of a thing, that's how we got here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:34:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23765437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilLayneeLoo/pseuds/LilLayneeLoo
Summary: Superman encounters a new type of Kryptonite, and he doesn't really want to be around Bruce.
Relationships: Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne
Comments: 8
Kudos: 272





	Periwinkle Professions

**Author's Note:**

> So this is based off of Wikipedia, to be honest. I was reading about types of Kryptonite because I'm new to the fandom in general, and was intrigued by this particular non-canon rock. So I had fun with it.

He could feel its presence, but he could not see it.

It was an odd sensation; not the pain or physical weakness that he was accustomed to, but rather, Clark suddenly felt physically and mentally...lighter.

He turned to his left and saw Diana facing one of Darkseid’s minions, brandishing her sword and shield. The minion lunged rapidly, but Diana’s reflexes were faster. With one epic swoop of her blade, the minion’s head was knocked clean off of its shoulders. 

“Yes Diana!” Clark yelled. “You fucking go girl!”

He slapped his hand to his mouth, realizing what he had just yelled. Why on Earth…?

He couldn’t deny that these types of thoughts often passed through his head during battle. He enjoyed watching his team mates succeed, and did cheer them on, but usually it was non-verbally, as to avoid distracting them at a crucial moment.

Diana also registered Clark’s odd behavior and turned to him. Before she could say anything, however, another minion approached her from behind and latched onto her back.

“Fuck!” Clark yelled. 

He never swore, either. Another thing that usually passed through his head but remained unspoken. Martha had instilled in him from a young age that cursing wasn’t necessary.

Clark didn’t really have time to consider the implications of his strange behavior. With one blast of his heat vision, the minion behind Diana collapsed. She fell to her knees, gave Clark a questioning glance, and then surged back into the battle unscathed.

Clark shook his head. He felt off, but he couldn’t explain what was troubling him. He decided that, for the sake of the rest of the team, he would try to fight in a relatively secluded area. That way he wouldn’t accidentally distract anyone and cause potential injury or destruction.

This worked for the majority of the battle. He, Diana, Arthur, and Barry kept off the minions while Bruce and Victor went for Darkseid. Rather than face the two of them, with the promise of Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Flash to come, Darkseid opened a portal and vanished, his minions following closely behind.

As the team regrouped, Clark couldn’t help what burst from his mouth.  
“That was a fucking coward move on Darkseid’s part,” he snorted, again immediately clapping his hand to his mouth.

“Clark!” Diana laughed, slapping him on the shoulder. “That’s three times you’ve sworn, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say ‘you go girl’ before in my life.”

Clark blushed deeply, noticing that at this point, Bruce had rejoined the group. Under his cowl, Bruce smirked.

“You go girl?” He teased. “Clark said that?”

“Yeah I did,” Clark said, rudely. “So what if I did? Why do you fucking care?”

Bruce was visibly taken aback.

“I...I’m sorry!” Clark said. He looked down at his hands. “I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with me!”

His blush deepened, and a bead of sweat rolled down his neck.

Victor frowned for a moment, and then his face relaxed and he turned to Bruce.

“Do you think those rocks were a type of Kryptonite?” 

Bruce looked puzzled for a second and then said: “Actually, that would explain it.”

Clark was hit by a wave of unprovoked impatience.

“Could one of you maybe tell me what the fuck is wrong?”

Bruce looked at him.

“Did you know there is a Kryptonite that’s a sort of… light blue? I don’t know how to describe the color-”

“Periwinkle?” Barry suggested.

“Sure,” Bruce said. “Sounds about right. It’s periwinkle, and I originally thought it was the stuff of legends, not real, but apparently it is.”

“Great,” Clark said. “But what does it do to me then, cause it clearly doesn’t fucking make me lose my powers.”

“No,” Bruce said, gesturing to Clark. “But it does make you lose your inhibitions.”

Clark began to sweat even more.

“So that’s why I’m pretty much saying whatever the fuck I want in the minute and not really thinking about the consequences of it.”

“Yep,” Victor said. 

“Shiiiiiit,” Arthur said, laughing. “How long do you think it’ll last?”

Bruce answered: “Probably anywhere between 24 and 48 hours. It seems that’s how long the effects of Green Kryptonite last, so we shouldn’t expect it to differ in its periwinkle form.”

Clark kept his hand clamped over his mouth until he was able to fly back to the hall in solitude. He resumed the motion throughout Bruce’s debriefing, and snagged Diana’s hand after everyone had already left.

“Diana,” he said. He hated the desperation and fear in his voice, but he simultaneously was aware that he could not control whether or not it showed. His words came out in a rush. “I have to stay alone until this fucking Kryptonite wears off because I’m in love with Bruce and if I spend any time around him I’m going to end up telling him because I suddenly seem to be unable to control what comes out of my mouth. And Bruce is so sexy that if he comes in the same room as me I’m afraid I’m just going to tell him that and it’s going to end so badly he’ll probably hate me…”

“Clark,” she cut him off. “Breathe.”

Clark put his hand over his mouth, and Diana suppressed a smile.

“I thought you might have feelings for him,” she said. “What do you want me to do then?”

“Keep him the fuck away from me!” Clark yelled. He clamped his hand over his mouth again.

Diana fully smiled this time.

“You know me, Clark,” she said. “I am very much in support of love-- I fully believe that perhaps you should take advantage of this opportunity to reveal your true feelings.”

“No no no,” Clark said, the desperation positively dripping from his voice. “Diana please I can’t tell him, he won’t return the feelings and he’ll start avoiding me and fuck he’s my best friend and he’s really important to me and what if he stops calling me and inviting me over and stuff?”

Diana paused for a second, then brought her fist to her mouth to cover her smile.

“Clark,” she said. “Bruce calls you? Bruce invites you to his house?”

“Well yeah,” Clark said, confused by her confusion and smile. “Why is that weird? We’re best friends, or at least he’s my best friend, so we hang out sometimes and I-”

“Clark,” she said again. “Bruce and I are friends as well… I never go to his house, and he never calls me for anything but League business.”

Clark rolled his eyes.

“You’re focusing on the wrong thing, Diana, I don’t want to tell him that I love him and I think it would go so poorly if I did.”

“Okay Clark,” Diana said. “I will let Bruce know that you think you need your space.”

Clark exhaled audibly. “Thank you.”

Diana nodded and turned on her heel. Once she had left the hall, Clark took off for his own apartment. 

The evening air felt soothing as it whipped past him. Gotham and Metropolis looked so serene from the night sky, city lights twinkling as buildings shut down for the day. He was enjoying his time alone, but before he could reach his apartment, his comm went off.

“Clark, it’s Bruce,” said the familiar gravelly voice. “Can you just tell me what’s going on instead of avoiding me like a 5 year old?”

Clark cleared his throat, but did not allow himself to say anything.

“Clark?” He asked. Clark cleared his throat again. “What the hell, Clark?”

He touched down on his balcony, and tore his comm off. As soon as he was inside, he changed out of his suit and into an old Metropolis University sweater and pajama pants. He relaxed, and went to lay on the couch, flicking on the evening news. He half expected some sort of disaster to show up, considering that he had already shed the costume, but nothing alarming came up. He pulled out his laptop, intending on working on an article while the TV was on, but was interrupted by a knock on his apartment door.

When he opened it, Bruce Wayne was standing on the other side. In typical Bruce fashion, he did not wait to be invited in. Pushing past Clark, he shed his trench coat and sat down on the couch. He glanced at the television, saw that nothing important was being broadcast, and set the volume to mute.

“Okay,” he said. “Why would Diana have called me after the debrief to tell me that you needed space from me specifically? Did I say something that offended you?”

Clark was taken aback. Not only did Bruce come over to his apartment instead of calling incessantly, he actually genuinely looked concerned.

Clark cleared his throat again, afraid to open his mouth.

“Are you ill?” Bruce asked, ironically, then he frowned. “What are you actually? Why do you keep clearing your throat?”

“Because I don’t want to say what I’m thinking,” Clark burst. Bruce’s frown deepened.

“Okay,” he nodded slowly. “Let me ask you questions then.”

Clark cursed mentally, but then tried to relax. Even if he answered Bruce’s questions, they probably wouldn’t end up touching on Clark’s romantic feelings.

“Are you physically okay, aside from the Kryptonite?”

Clark nodded.

“Is Martha okay?”

Clark nodded again.

“Did I say something to upset you?”

Clark shook his head.

“Did someone in the league say something to upset you?”

Clark shook his head again.

“So you’re not upset.”

A third shake.

“So, does this have something to do with me in general?”

Clark nodded.

“About our friendship?”

Clark shrugged, unsure how to answer this question. He wanted more than friendship, so it kind of did, but at the same time, it was a separate issue.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Bruce asked, confused.

Clark cleared his throat again.

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Bruce said, exasperated. “What is so bad that you can’t tell me? It’s not like you’re in love with me or something, so what is it?”

Clark hated that he could feel his cheeks darkening. 

Bruce was looking right at him, and couldn’t miss the flush of his face.

“Clark?” Bruce asked. It took him a moment, but eventually Clark saw understanding rush over Bruce’s face. He tried to read the look in Bruce’s eyes, but he couldn’t. 

“Clark, are you in love with me?”

His secret had been as good as revealed, and every inch of his body was begging him to just answer, so Clark slowly nodded.

“And you didn’t want me around, because you have no filter right now, and you didn’t want to say anything?”

Clark nodded again. Bruce’s hands dropped heavily in his lap.

“Why didn’t you want to say anything?” Bruce asked. At Clark’s obvious hesitance, he added: “I know you love me now, Clark, so you might as well stop torturing yourself and speak.”

Clark relaxed his jaw a little, and before he could think it through, the words came rushing out of his mouth.

“Because I’m embarrassed. I’m so fucking happy to be best friends with you and I don’t want anything to change because even though I love you from afar, I’m okay with that if that’s all I can have because a friendship with you is not as good as a relationship with you but it’s also way fucking better than nothing with you. And I know you’re straight and you like to have sex with women from your parties and you don’t want some bumbling idiot reporter from Kansas, especially because he’s a guy, and I knew that I’m such a fucking idiot that I would just come in with my stupid feelings and fuck us up.”

Clark took a breath and collapsed onto the couch next to his friend. Bruce was staring at him. 

Finally, he spoke.

“Clark, I want to address several things that you just said. First and foremost, I am not the most emotionally savvy person, but I will say that you should never be embarrassed because you love someone.”

Clark swallowed. Bruce continued.

“Next, it’s important that you know that I, too, place a lot of value on our friendship. You have become someone very important to me, more important than I knew was possible.”

Clark swallowed again, willing himself to keep his mouth shut.

“I also want to clarify that while, yes, I do have sex with some of the women at my parties, that does not necessarily mean I’m straight. In fact, the sex is to keep up appearances, because I am unsure of how Gotham would react to knowing that its most eligible bachelor is gay.”

Clark’s mouth opened, but Bruce put his hand up to shush him.

“Finally, I feel that it’s necessary to say that you have not come in and fucked anything up, because the bumbling idiot from Kansas who is sitting in front of me now is the most sensitive, thoughtful, funny, charming, and gorgeous man I have ever met in my entire life, and the fact that he has been hiding his feelings under the foolish assumption that I could never reciprocate them, when in fact, I’ve returned those feelings all along, does not make him a fucking idiot, but rather, a human being.”

Clark’s mouth was open again, this time in shock. Bruce met his eyes, and Clark could see nothing but genuine emotion behind the rich blue. 

“And…” Bruce added slowly, clearing his throat and wiping his palms on his pants. “Seeing as you have no inhibitions at the present moment, I’d like to also make it clear that I would be happy to partake in any potential interactions that might be...encouraged...by what I just told you.”

Clark felt a surge of impatience again.

“What the fuck are you trying to say, Bruce?” 

Clark moved to clap his hand over his mouth yet again, but Bruce caught his wrist and looked him in the eyes.

“I’m saying that,” he said. “Clark Kent, I love you, and if you’re feeling up to it, I would very much like to kiss you right now.”

Clark blushed.

“Oh,” he said. “Well, that’s really awesome, because I really love you and I’ve wanted to kiss you for so fucking long, like you wouldn’t even believe it and I-”

“Shut up and kiss me, Kent,” Bruce said. Their lips met, and somehow, through the fireworks that were exploding behind Clark’s eyes, he thought: Periwinkle is my new favorite color.

**Author's Note:**

> So this was for me more than anything, but if anyone reads and wants to give me some feedback, it's more than welcome.


End file.
